The European Union wants elderly people (70+) to undergo medical tests from now on to prove that they are still capable of driving a car every five years. However, the proposal has been met with a lot of criticism.
Very good. As a german, I’d welcome this.
However, expect heavy pushback from the German automotive industry. They are for Germany what the NRA and weapons manufacturer lobby is to the US.
If a german pensioneer can’t drive a german car with more than 250 kph on the german Autobahn from north to south, west to east: how can we have EINIGKEIT UND RECHT UND FREIHEIT?
/s
You are missing this: !!!1111
Does the German automotive industry also exercise immense power and influence in both politics and society?
That’s a solid “Yes, definitely!”
Germany has more cars per capita than the US and Germany is the only country without a speedlimit on motorways. So yes, they definitely do
Not true. Numbers from 2020: USA 919 Germany 628
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_vehicles_per_capita?wprov=sfti1
Looks like you’re right, I heard this fact in a YouTube video or something and didn’t check against. I’m sorry, I don’t want to spread misinformation.
Germany is unbelievably car-centric for a developed country. It’s also nicely planned, so most of the time you can survive pretty well without a car, but car is still the king here
Medical tests?? bleh. Driving is driving, health is health. All drivers should have a to retake basic driving tests at an increasing rate until by the age of 70 where it maxes out at once per 5 years or something.
I agree, especially since medical tests won’t show the driver slowing down as they enter a roundabout or taking a full minute to shift lanes or positioning themselves so they can’t even look in the rearview mirror.
A ton of driving is about behaviors and tendencies. A driver that has no awareness of other drivers is a dangerous driver, regardless of how good their heart, eyes, or reaction time. Dementia obviously affects this, but you can get a clean bill of health from your doctor and then drive off home in the left lane at 5 below the speed limit because other people are just going too damn fast.
Yep, well said :)
This would be great. We should also require all drivers to pass small exams every ~10 years in order to assert that they are up to date with new laws and new types of infrastructure.
Everyone mentions cognitive abilities, which is also important, but really physical abilities should be tested as well.
Here in america, My 89 y.o. grandmother (at the time) used canes to get around. Got her license renewed just by a written test, no one batted an eye. The fact that she “walked” in was enough and no one saw that she would physically have to pull her leg up to push the brake pedal.
She got into quite a few fender benders after that, and 1 pretty bad accident that totalled her car. That bad accident was responsible for a huge decline in health. She cant drive any longer, but between the insurance and the burden on family to support her ailing health, it all could have been avoided if they required a doctor’s signature for renewal.
I do realize that something like this takes away from feeling independent and maintaining autonomy, and i feel for that. It sucks that part of growing old is…well, growing old, but should those emotions outweigh personal and public safety?
There was a man who lived on my street who drove way way way into old age. His car was literally covered from front to back in dents. You’d see him walking to his car so slowly it was painful. He’d struggle to get the door open, hop in, and take off. It seemed like he had a new dent every time he came home.
I knew another man though, WWII vet, 98 years old. His wife was 93. He’d come to my store and buy cigars for himself and cigarettes for the wife. He had no issues getting around at all. I was legit shocked when I found out how old he was. His health deteriorated so quickly seemingly out of nowhere and he was still trying to drive, but fortunately his daughter stepped in and put an end to it.
Now his daughter has dementia. One day she stopped in to buy cigarettes for her mom and she asked me if I knew her son. It kind of took me by surprise. I’ve known the whole family for 20 years at this point.
Her son had a serious car accident in the mid 2000s and he’s been in a wheelchair since. He lost both of his legs, half of one of his hands, fingers burned off at the ends on the other. He barely survived.
She was telling me about the accident like it had just recently happened. She was crying, said almost word for word what she’d said to me all those years ago while he was in the hospital. Such a surreal experience.
Next time I seen her she asked me again, “Do you know my son?”
Then she tried to pay for her fuel 3 times back to back.
She’s still driving. Everyone knows that she’s experiencing these problems including the local police, but she’s still out there driving around.
I feel like this makes for a good argument for adequate public transit in the United States. If elderly people had access to public transit, then they might not feel like they are losing their independence if they can’t drive.
This is quite a brilliant idea. Although we could argue that everyone of all ages should be somewhat tested every x years. The amount of people that are over confident and forget things on the road is quite scary.
If they would do that we would finally get a strong lobby for decent public transport!
Good Idea. It’s widely accepted that cognitive capabilities can decline rapidly with old age. It simply makes no sense that a person that needs 8 tries and 10 minutes to change the station on their TV is still allowed to operate a two ton death machine without any checks in place.
The important part here is to make it so that it ONLY “catches” declined driving capabilities and is not also biased in terms of social and financial status or maybe if you’re an immigrant or something.
Reaction speed in particular.
There’s a pretty serious concern here about the mobility and independence of the elderly… but that can’t be put over and above public safety. I see either very anxious and hesitant, or completely off with the fairies and uncaring elderly drivers on a frequent basis.
They wouldn’t get anywhere near a licence if they had to demonstrate their competence even once more, let alone semi-regularly.
Mobility for the eldery IS important but IMHO there should be affordable, easy accessible options without the use of a personal vehicle. Otherwise it get’s harder and harder for the eldery to participate in social activities which are beneficiary to mental health and prevent early symptoms of Alzheimers disease.
Not in the UK myself, but I am not opposed to this. I think it was last year that I heard about someone who was unable to see people 20+ feet in front of him and how he
eitherkilled a person. LinkI would hope that this gets adopted anywhere in the world for those who experience what happens with age + those who have severe vision problems to ensure the safety of pedestrians.
Should be every 2 years - for everyone with a license.
That seems expensive to enforce. It would make more sense for people to be tested every 10 years till age 68, every 5 years till age 78, then every two years after that.
That seems beyond excessive.
It shouldn’t. That’s a monumental administrative task. My gov can barley keep up with issuing passports. Imagine having to reissue drivers licenses with a check up every 2 years for everyone…
Good.
Normalize checking peoples cognitive abilities.
Provided age is not the trigger given that no proof has been provided supporting the age limit.
Well random age limits are all over. For Voting, Working, optainig the driver license, drinking, being out late, You name it.
I can sort of understand the downvotes, but can anyone link a study maybe?
I wish we could test for cognitive ability for voting access over 70.
The german satire party DIE PARTEI wanted to implement a highest voting age. If you can’t vote the first 18 years of your life, you shouldn’t be able to vote the final 18 years.
I seriously hoped it would have been implemented The older folks seem to ruin germany more the older they get
How to determine when the last 18 start, though?
Well insurance companies have all the models necessary for that. It’s actually called actuary and it’s a field of mathematics.
Or, average national lifespan
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I hear that in Germany comedy is no laughing matter…
That is true. We like the Monty Pythons more than anyone else does, we adore them! But we would never diminish this feeling by laughing about their jokes. Instead we do argue for hours about the philosophical implications of a silly walk.
I’ve been saying the same thing for years. We should revoke voting status 18y from whatever the national average lifespan. That’ll never happen, though.
